JOHN DRYDEN
JOHN DRYDEN
Dryden's contributions to English criticism are significant and spectacular. His genius is myriad and his achievements are tremendous. Dryden was a great poet, a great satirist, a great dramatist and a great critic. He found English language brick and made it marble. Dryden is rightly called the father of English criticism. It was Dryden and Dryden alone who thought to determine upon the principles of the merit of composition. Dryden did not take the comprehensive views of literature as a hole nor did he write on the problems connected with it. He was the first English critic who took the criticism seriously and thought deeply over all the problems connected with literature. He wrote brilliant appreciations of the works of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Fletcher and Ben Jonson.
The most important quality of Dryden as a critic was his liberal outlook was the pioneer of the liberal classicism. This liberalism was his first great quality and this made him different from other critics. In justifying this liberal attitude, he invoked his historical concept of literature. Dryden's greatness as a critic lies in this fact that made discriminating use of French influences and no wonder he always added something of his own to the criticism. He regarded literature as a mirror of society, reflecting faithfully the characteristic of the age. Dryden's sense of history was perceptible in his views on Chaucer. Dryden recognized the truly that literature is not static but a dynamic process. It is ever growing and it is ever changing. The rules and literary values must also change according to the changes in literary and social conditions of the age. Dryden was not only the pioneer in the use of historical criticism but also the father of comparative criticism in England.
The method adopted by Dryden's predecessors was too compare to modern literature with ancient Greek. Dryden did not follow their methods. He adopted the comparative methods of criticism and undisputedly he was the first English critic to analyse English and foreign plays and examined their comparative merits and demerits. What is more, Dryden was the most English of the English criticism. The English writer simulated the frame writers and followed the principles of regularity, order and spirit of good sense in their prose, drama and poetry. Dryden did not like slavish imitation. He was always interested in introducing new and novel technique. And decidedly arrested and elaborated the merits of English drama over above the French plays. Atkins praises Dryden's originality as a critic an T.S. Eliot admires Dryden as a great critic.
The most important quality of Dryden as a critic was his liberal outlook was the pioneer of the liberal classicism. This liberalism was his first great quality and this made him different from other critics. In justifying this liberal attitude, he invoked his historical concept of literature. Dryden's greatness as a critic lies in this fact that made discriminating use of French influences and no wonder he always added something of his own to the criticism. He regarded literature as a mirror of society, reflecting faithfully the characteristic of the age. Dryden's sense of history was perceptible in his views on Chaucer. Dryden recognized the truly that literature is not static but a dynamic process. It is ever growing and it is ever changing. The rules and literary values must also change according to the changes in literary and social conditions of the age. Dryden was not only the pioneer in the use of historical criticism but also the father of comparative criticism in England.
The method adopted by Dryden's predecessors was too compare to modern literature with ancient Greek. Dryden did not follow their methods. He adopted the comparative methods of criticism and undisputedly he was the first English critic to analyse English and foreign plays and examined their comparative merits and demerits. What is more, Dryden was the most English of the English criticism. The English writer simulated the frame writers and followed the principles of regularity, order and spirit of good sense in their prose, drama and poetry. Dryden did not like slavish imitation. He was always interested in introducing new and novel technique. And decidedly arrested and elaborated the merits of English drama over above the French plays. Atkins praises Dryden's originality as a critic an T.S. Eliot admires Dryden as a great critic.
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